I discovered something nice tonight while tweaking the system for the g2g. The mid driver and cabinets were designed for SE triode amps and the crossovers were voiced by the designer using a 300B SE. I have been running SS PP and even the 300Bs in PP mode and not entirely happy. Some freqs were clear, others muffled, some sharp, others dull. I avoided SE mode because it is less power, and even the PP mode with 24W needs some feedback to prevent slight distortion on the peaks. Well golly gee, tonight I switched in SE and listened for a while to my favorite latin jazz radio show. The Sansui TU-717 radio has great tone quality and the speakers came to life. The parallel SE mode with only 11W needs no feedback, and is kickin, even on symphonies. I guess the parallel tubes deliver more current than a single tube pushing or pulling so the feedback is not needed. The extra warmth of SE compliments the warmth of the horns and it just works.

You have experienced the Humpty Dumpty effect. Once the PP splits the signal "All the King's horses and all the King's Men couldn't put him back together again." Phase splitting. Once that single ended bug bites it is tough to recover. . Over the years we have assembled numerous fine sounding systems with PP amps. There is just something special about SET and horns. If you get to hear a 211 based SET [ 18W ] with say a GE 211 tubesthe warmth factor diminishes slightly with more clarity. If you use an RCA 211 ya get both in spades, oh my ! Have fun trying different amps. I love that 300B sound, just not for bass reproduction.

That makes sense Charles. I always love the class A sound, whether it is SS or tubes it's easy to hear. Everything just relaxes. I just don't like too much 2nd order distortion that SE tubes usually makes. This speakers has enough already, but somehow the SE tubes cover up the annoying parts of the speaker. 3rd order distortion I love, but that's usually class A PP like Pass. I like 845s too every since I heard Mastersound's 845PPs. I'd love to hear Hugh's M845 monos.

This combination makes pretty good bass. Not as clear detail as a SS amp with 800 damping factor. But Manley winds their own iron and worked on these transformers for a long time for this neoClassic version. The trannies must be switchable SE/PP, plus sound clear, plus low impedance and dual output taps. They source about 2ohms, and the 8 ohm woofers are in series so it is pretty punchy for SET. I do like these amps for hteir adaptability, but if I get a speaker working the way I want, I'll go for a less flexible/compromised design.

Shane please bring:2PCs for your tube ampsbalanced ICs if you want to try the balanced input?Steve's Ref 1 has balanced out, but my DAC does not yet. Maybe your new DAC does?I have dummy resistors to keep the tubes hot if we do some comparing.

Bring some vinyl guys! We have Steve's VPI 16.0 rcm here. and CDs too... or drives.